Russian Bitcoin Blogger Robbed and Beaten After Boasting Wealth

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Pavel Nyashin, a 24-year-old Internet blogger from St. Petersburg who blogged about his wealth, was beaten and robbed of nearly 24 million rubles in his Leningrad area home, according to forklog. Nyashin had even mentioned the house where he kept his crypto holdings..

Police are investigating the incident. Nyashin, who was hospitalized after the attack, said he remembers the face of one of the robbers who did not wear a mask.

Nyashin, who founded “Kryptach,” a Youtube channel, had posted a video on social media networks in which he taught people to trade bitcoin on exchanges.

Robbers Make Off With Safe

He said that the robbers, most of whom wore New Year’s masks, hit him in the eye with a pistol before tying him up, according to NTV. The robbers then tied up a friend of his on the second floor and took a safe containing the equivalent of 24 million rubles and important documents, as well as a computer he used for trading bitcoin.

The robbers destroyed all of Nyashin’s home appliances and computers before leaving in a Mercedes.

Shortly before the attack, a stranger contacted Nyashin who claimed he wanted to invest in cryptocurrencies and wanted Nyashin to trade on his behalf on an exchange. This individual could have been among the robbers, Nyashin said.

It is uncertain how the robbers learned Nyashin’s home address, although he did show his apartment in one of his videos. He does not know if the robbers have figured out how to get into his blogger’s account or to access his cryptocurrency.

Not The First Crypto Expert Targeted

Nyashin is not the first cryptocurrency expert to be targeted by criminals.

Pavel Lerner, an analyst at EXMO LLP and a “blockbuster” expert, was abducted by armed men waiting for him near his office in Kiev. The kidnappers eventually released Lerner, who has been involved in a number of startups related to cryptocurrencies, on Dec. 29 after a ransom of $1 million worth of bitcoin was paid for his release.